


Be Wherever You Are

by quartetship



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Related, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different? Why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?





	Be Wherever You Are

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the result of much multishipping and a lot of recent Hunk/Lance feels on my part. Enjoy the fluff, friends! :)

\--

“I’m gonna be a pilot someday.” 

Lance waved a hand across the sky, and imagined his fingers as the long, lean, gloved hands of a pilot, rather than the stubby, sawed-off digits of a boy nearing nine. In his mind, he had everything planned out, and it all revolved around his plan to fly - right out of the earth’s atmosphere. He turned to his best friend and grinned, regaling him. “A real space man, you know? People all over the planet are gonna know who I am.”

“Space is awesome!” Hunk yelped, eyes wide and a hand slapped over his forehead. He considered his own enthusiasm for a moment and seemed to think better of it; giving Lance a gap-toothed wince, he shrugged, more restrained. “Maybe a little scary for me, though. Course, I've never really thought about flying. Maybe visiting would be nice?”

Lance punched playfully at Hunk’s shoulder. “You can be my copilot. I'll do all the cool stuff, and you can come with me and like… I don't know. Cheer me on?”

“That sounds good,” Hunk replied. “How long ‘til we can go to space?”

“Gotta go to school for it first, I think.” Lance licked slowly across his teeth, counting up the years until they'd both be old enough for pilot training. “Maybe like ten years, or so?”

Hunk whistled. “That's a long time.” Lance nodded in response, and things fell silent between them for a few moments, until Hunk let his wondering become musing, aloud. “Hey Lance - why do you wanna go to space so bad, anyway?” 

“New stuff to see, cool action, adventure, might meet aliens…” Lance laughed, tickled by the way Hunk was already chortling, always the first to snicker at his jokes. Then his voice dropped lower, quieter than before; “Plus - nobody can forget about you when you're a famous space explorer.” He glanced back toward his house, full to bursting with family, where he always felt like a drop in the wide, blue ocean. He sighed. 

Beside him, Hunk nodded. Maybe he didn't understand, exactly. But he cared, and that was more than enough reason for Lance to wish ten years would hurry up and pass, so he could drag his best friend along and give them both the high flying future of his dreams. 

\--

“God, I can't wait to get out of this place.” Lance flopped down onto the edge of a lunch table in the enormous cafeteria of his middle school. It was usually about midday that he began his countdown toward the end of it, sick to the teeth of listening to facts and figures he knew weren't relevant to his life. Motioning vaguely toward the hallway that led toward the school library, he made a gagging noise. “If I see that same nasty yellow paint one more time, I'm gonna vomit.”

“Better eat a light lunch, then.” Hunk prompted, and Lance groaned, lying back across the lunch table. Splaying his fingers out in front of him to block the harsh light of the fluorescent bulbs above them, he counted, grumbling.

“How many days do you think we have left until we can join the garrison?” 

Hunk swallowed a mouthful of sandwich, thought for a split second, then straightened in his seat. “One thousand, two hundred and--”

“I'm just gonna stop you right there.” Lance sighed. He let an arm fall across his eyes as he closed them. Beside him, Hunk laughed.

“School isn't so bad, man. Everyone we know goes here.”

“Yeah, and that's the problem.” Lance said, peeking out from beneath his arm, just slightly. “I dunno man, I just… I can't wait to get out of here and see some new shit. Maybe meet some hot babes who hang around the garrison cities, lookin’ for pilots.” 

“You sure you don't just wanna get away from your mom for a bit?”

Lance shrugged, laughing in spite of himself. “Yeah well, that too.” 

“We’ll get there, man,” Hunk promised. “In the meantime though, let's get to biology. I don't want detention. Again.”

\--

“Why’s he gotta be like that?!” Lance demanded. It was only he and Hunk, in their shared bunk room at the Garrison dormitory building, but Lance shouted as if he hoped everyone on the base might hear him. “It's like he does this shit on purpose man, just to spite me! Fucking  _ Keith.”  _ He spat his name, like his mother might blush to hear him say it. “Mister natural talent, good grades, good scores, best damned pilot in our class. How?! I'm gonna get fuckin’ wait listed and he's…” Lance took a seat on the edge of his bed, dragging a hand down over his face, breath coming raggedly as he labored not to cry. “I’m working my ass off. And him? It's like he doesn't even have to try.”

“Everyone is good at something,” Hunk said, an obvious attempt at reassurance. It felt more like a mockery to Lance’s tender ego, but Hunk smiled and carried on, anyway. “That doesn't mean you can't improve your scores and--”

“Not in time for exams, Hunk.” Lance spat, though he felt a pang of regret as soon as he did. Hunk wasn't the problem.  _ Keith _ was the problem. Lance dug at his temples, sighing. “That eighties fashion disaster is ruining my life, and I wish he'd get lost on a fuckin’ flight mission or some shit. Disappear into the depths of space.”

“Hey, listen,” Hunk began, more cautious as he took as seat at the opposite end of Lance’s bed. “I'm serious, Lance -  _ listen _ to me. Alright? Whatever happens, it's gonna be okay. Maybe you won't be where you wanna be right this minute, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy wherever you are, until you get there.”

He smiled, like he couldn't be convinced not to, and despite the fact that the actual words he shared made Lance want to punch him, the very genuine sentiment behind them chipped away at the anger that threatened to harden his heart. Lance shook his head, turning sideways on the bed to face Hunk properly, before stretching his legs out in front of him, feet prodding at his friend. 

“You're too soft for the military.” He said. Hunk shrugged, didn't bother arguing, and Lance finally smiled. “You're probably too soft for this whole damned world. But Hunk?”

“Yeah?”

“M’glad you're here.”

At that, Hunk nodded, reaching out to squeeze Lance’s ankle as he grinned. “Glad  _ we’re _ here.”

\--

The alarm went off at the same time as always on the morning that they gathered in the mess halls to hear the announcement of the Kerberos mission being a failure, but the entire morning felt slower and colder than any before it. Lance sat squished up against Hunk on a crowded bench as instructors with poorly hidden fear in their eyes gave them carefully selected news, about unfortunate losses and ‘pilot error’ and how the failure would change the course of space exploration, moving forward. They did not take questions, did not offer any further details, and something about the entire thing felt strange to Lance. 

For the first time, he wondered if he had made the right decision. All he'd ever wanted was to explore the dark skies, but with the reality of death settling over him as a possible end result to a routine mission, he began to second guess those aspirations. He had  _ known _ Shiro, maybe not personally, but he was horrified by the mere fact that a person from Lance’s division, a person he had laid eyes on and once hoped to work alongside was gone, lost to those same skies of endless black. 

Curious murmuring broke out amongst the other cadets for the rest of the afternoon, but few seemed to grasp the severity of what had happened. Quietly, Lance turned over his options in his mind, willing himself to complete his basic schooling, to make it into fighter pilot training and to keep moving forward, despite the fact that the future he'd laid out for himself was becoming increasingly scary and uncertain. Part of him wanted to linger in the innocence of the days before he'd seen one of his heroes fall out of the sky, but time waited for no one. 

No exception would be made for a poor kid turned poorly qualified, wannabe pilot. 

If he spent the next few days hovering in Hunk’s shadow, glad for the familiarity and comfort in a time of upheaval, no one said anything about it. Least of all Hunk, who let Lance trail after him gladly, happy to take the lead while his best friend figured himself out. Regardless of what else was going on, what fears either of them had, he was happy to co-pilot. 

Lance hoped he always would be. 

\--

It was only supposed to be a little evening trip, Lance and Hunk and their teammate Pidge, skipping out from the garrison base and heading into town, to see some unfamiliar faces and eat something that wasn't cooked in a cafeteria. They were only looking for a little excitement, something different than the walls they had to look at every damned day. Unfortunately, ‘something different’ was exactly what they found. 

Maybe it wasn't really unfortunate. They rescued Shiro, after all, Lance’s hero who quickly began to speak to him the way a friend might. They reunited with Keith, which certainly leaned more toward the unfortunate side of the spectrum, but what he led them into was something beyond Lance’s wildest dreams. 

And despite being flanked by two of the best pilots and some of the smartest people in his entire military division, the blue lion spoke to  _ Lance.  _ It guided him, along with the others, to a world he couldn't have even imagined, and within hours, his life changed forever. 

The day that Voltron became part of his vocabulary was a long one. Had it all happened in a single day? Lance couldn't be sure. Space made keeping track of time nearly impossible. Not only that, but he was fairly certain that the sun did not rise and set on Arus like it did on earth, and everything he and the others had been through still felt a bit like a dream, rather than the contents of an actual day or two. 

Lance shook his head, still reeling from the weight of it all.

“How the hell did this even happen? Two days ago I was a student and…”

“Now we’re like space super heroes.” Hunk flexed his arms dramatically, pulling a grin out of Lance purely on reflex. 

“Yeah! It's crazy!” Lance said, and then before he could stop himself, “It's… It's a little scary.”

“You're tellin’ me.” Hunk pulled off one shoe, shaking it out and staring with great interest at the dusty pebbles that fell out, souvenirs of the planet Arus. Lance laughed under his breath, trying not to think for too long about his anxieties. The longer he dwelt on the fact that he hadn't even known Arus existed, the week before, the farther from home he felt. Better to focus on the familiarity that was Hunk, at his side. 

Lance leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.

“But uh, just so you know - I'm glad you're here.”

“Glad  _ we’re _ here.” Hunk corrected him. Lance snorted. 

“You find way too many things to be happy about,” he said, but he didn't bother hiding the fact that he was glad to be one of them. 

\--

Once the routine of daily training and weekly world-saving had become somewhat commonplace for the paladins, Lance began to find time to dwell on everything he'd left behind, back on earth. Everyone on the ship dealt with their loneliness and isolation in their own way. As usual, his way of coping involved closely shadowing Hunk in their occasional downtime. 

For his part, Hunk never seemed to be homesick. Sure, he'd all but  _ cried _ to go home in their early days. But once he'd seen what Voltron was destined to do, he'd been fully onboard, taking on challenges like a man obsessed. Between missions, he could often be found working toward making life on the castle ship better for his teammates, or learning about the language and technology of their Altean hosts. That was where Lance located him, his nose buried in a stack of holographic tablets on the sitting room couch one evening. Without asking, Lance flopped down on the couch beside him. Hunk didn't protest, only moved his notes and the tablets to one side, to allow Lance to stretch out, to bury his face in his crossed arms as he moped quietly next to him. 

When Lance decided he'd sulked in silence long enough, he grumbled a complaint, prompting Hunk to raise an eyebrow, looking his way momentarily.

“Hm?” 

Lance lifted his chin, just enough to be heard. “I said I miss home.”

Hunk nodded, only glancing up from his work for a few seconds. “Me too, man. M’sure everyone here does.” It wasn't what Lance had been hoping to hear. 

“I know, I know. I just… I wasn't planning on disappearing into a wormhole before I even got to graduate. I miss good food and trashy tv shows and bath bombs and decent coffee and rainy days and... I miss my family, Hunk.” Looking down at his hands, he remembered the five-finger nursery rhymes he'd taught his sisters, saw the short, thick scars across his knuckles he'd collected from exploring with his brothers, and sighed. “You think they miss me?”

“I know they do.” Hunk said. He laid aside the tablets upon which he'd been working to make his point. “I'd miss you, if I wasn't here with you.”

At that, Lance smiled. “Thank quiznak you are, though. At least I've still got you.” He rolled over, rotating his body so his feet were stretched out toward Hunk. He studied his own socked feet for a moment, idly wondering how many more clean pairs he had, until the still silence in the air grew awkward, and he glanced up to see Hunk looking back at him.  _ Staring _ back at him. Lance swallowed. “What?”

“Nothing. I mean - I dunno, that was just. A really nice thing to say, I guess.”

“Well you know I wouldn't bullshit you, man,” Lance grinned. “You are the very best thing on this ship. The best thing in this entire galaxy.”

_ “Lance…” _ Hunk almost whined his name, and something in Lance’s stomach leapt to his chest, fluttering madly. He sat up straighter. 

“What's a’matter big guy?” He snickered. Hunk shook his head. He rolled his shoulders backward, shifting in his seat. It was… kind of adorable, Lance thought. Hunk twisted his mouth to one side, visibly tense.

“You just… That sounds almost. I don't know? Like you're  _ flirting _ with me or something.”

Lance considered his next words for all of a few seconds before letting them fly, afraid of chickening out. “Well maybe I am.”

“Maybe you should…” Hunk’s eyes were wide, and his words trailed off as if he couldn't quite decide what he should ask Lance to do. Lance prompted him, taking a little too much joy in watching him squirm. It had been a long time since anyone had actually responded to his flirtation, after all. 

“Should what? You want me to stop? Am I makin’ you blush?” 

“No, b-but I might make  _ you _ blush if you don't knock it off.” Hunk was clearly trying to sound some shade of threatening, but it sounded like a second language in his voice. Lance bit back a grin. 

“Like to see you try that one, sir. I'll have you know it's nearly  _ impossible _ to make  _ me _ blush.”

“What if I kiss you?” Hunk blurted out. Lance’s confidence faltered.

“Wha-  _ huh?!” _

“I was going to say, would it make you blush if I kissed you, but since you're already blushing, I--”

“I am not!” Lance snapped. He slapped hands over his cheeks defiantly, feeling the skin there growing hot beneath his hands. The game had gone from playful, meaningless flirtation to something very different, and his heart was humming in his chest as he swallowed. He gave Hunk a hard frown. 

“Mmhm. Okay. Well, I guess I don't need to do anything to--”

“You could, though,” Lance said quickly, this time wishing he could stop his mouth. It seemed to have a will of its own, or maybe that will was really just his. “Kiss me, I mean. Like, I'm not  _ opposed. _ If you want. I'm not gonna  _ ask _ you to, or whatever, but like… If that's a thing  _ you _ want to do, I'm cool with it, you know?”

“Yeah?” Hunk asked, and his voice was lower, quieter. It occurred to Lance that he'd gotten closer, if only by a few inches, but it was enough that Hunk’s hands were within grabbing distance of his own, and he suddenly really wanted to take hold of them. He did his best to sound casual. 

“Yeah. Totally fine by me. I don't care. It's whatever you--”

Lance could not finish his sentence. Hunk grabbed either side of his face, and pressed their lips together with a little too much force, nearly falling forward into him. Lance gasped and pulled back just enough to catch his breath, before throwing an arm around Hunk’s neck, pulling him in again so as not to leave him thinking he'd done something wrong. 

Because kissing Hunk didn't feel wrong, at all. 

It was strange at first, yeah. Once they found their balance, Lance found himself clinging to Hunk, one arm still wrapped around his neck while the other hand rested firmly on his shoulder. Hunk held him in place, careful not to let him fall, as he brought their lips together a second time, much gentler, and with all the hesitation he clearly felt. He'd been so bold at first, but the way he slid his tongue past Lance’s teeth, soft and careful, spoke volumes more than his flirtatious threats ever could have. He wanted Lance to enjoy himself, and once he relaxed a little, and Lance could taste the faint sweetness of his mouth, feel the warmth of large, strong hands clutching his thin body, he made it abundantly clear that he was doing just that, sighing quietly into the kiss until Hunk finally broke it.

When they pulled back from one another, Hunk was beaming, lips pink and slick, swollen as they quirked upward into a wide, satisfied grin.

“You're  _ definitely _ blushing, now.”

“Fuck off.” Lance hissed, but the giddy look on Hunk’s face made it impossible not to smile, as well. “Honestly, though? That was surprisingly nice.”

“Surprisingly?” Hunk snorted, jabbing him in the side. “Like you expected it to be bad?” 

“No, just weird.” Lance admitted. “You're like… You're my  _ bro,  _ man. My best bud. My right hand man. How was I supposed to know it would be fun to make out with you?”

Hunk grinned, shrugging. “Guess you never know until you try, huh?” 

“True, that.” Lance conceded. Hunk’s hands were still resting on his legs, big and warm and so,  _ so _ pleasant. He leaned forward, letting his own wiry fingers drift across the backs of them, an unspoken question. “So, uh. Any chance you might feel like trying again, any time soon?”

Without further prompting, Hunk nodded, leaning into Lance’s space again and capturing his lips. There was no hesitation, no pause for thought as they kissed, Hunk’s lips as warm and sweet as they'd been moments earlier, this time sliding across Lance’s with confidence and care. Lance sighed, pulling their bodies together by their clothes to kiss Hunk again and again, until his lungs felt like they were full of his best friend, his -  _ whatever they were going to be, now.  _

He wriggled into Hunk’s lap, glad for how natural it felt, sitting there. Hunk looped an arm lazily around his middle, and pulled Lance in a few inches closer, just enough to combine their warmth in the chilly, sterile air of the sitting room. Lance let his head fall against Hunk’s shoulder, his eyes shuttering closed.

“I still miss home. But this kinda…  _ helps, _ you know?”

Hunk rubbed patternless trails up one side of Lance’s back and down the other, humming happily. “Glad to be of service.”

\--

Lance was fairly certain his least favorite part of being in space was the existence of wormholes. 

Sure, the Galra were terrible. Repeatedly landing himself in Altean healing pods wasn't exactly an enjoyable pastime, and the food he was forced to choke down on a regular basis was borderline  _ terrifying _ when Hunk wasn't cooking. But he could wrap his brain around all of that. Fucking  _ wormholes _ were impossible to understand, and once again, he found himself on the opposite end of one, this time from all of his other teammates. 

Everyone except - by the grace of some higher power - for Hunk. 

Lance nearly sobbed with relief when he looked out of the windows of the blue lion to see Hunk and the yellow lion almost flush against them. They'd landed in water, endlessly deep, and their lions had brought them back to the surface, yellow hanging close to blue like it might need guidance, so far from land. Lance didn't bother bringing up Hunk’s comm screen, settling instead for climbing out of the lion, standing on its face. His helmet indicated that the atmosphere offered air that would safe for him to breathe. Removing his headgear, he took a seat, shaking the sweat of stress from his hair. 

“Where do you think we are?”

“No idea, man.” Hunk hauled himself the rest of the way out of the cockpit of his own lion, crawling out of its mouth and onto its broad, metal snout. He took a seat there and peeled his helmet off, winded. “I didn't even know there were so many planets in the universe. We could be on one that earth doesn't even know exists.”

“Comforting.” Lance sighed. He glanced one way and then the opposite, surveying the endless expanse of deep, blue water. “Do you think there's even any land, here?” Hunk shrugged one shoulder in response, still looking around, himself. 

 

“I dunno. I'm not planning on goin’ for a swim to find it, though.” 

“Nah, I'm stickin’ with you and Blue.” Lance patted the surface of the blue lion’s face beside him, prompting it to move, just slightly. He stroked the metal reassuringly, not entirely certain that the lion could feel his touch, but comforted by the action himself, regardless.

Peering into the windows of his lion, Hunk looked quickly back at Lance, like he was in the process of planning something. “Do you have your comm links on?”

“Yeah, of course I do. Don't know if the others are in range, though. Haven't heard a peep. For all we know they got eaten by a fuckin’ black hole or something.”

“I hope not.” Hunk said quickly, eyes going wide. After a moment he seemed to pull himself together a bit, and shook his head. “I doubt it too, honestly. They're probably just on some other weird planet. We’ll find ‘em. No worries.”

“You and the ‘no worries’ thing.” Lance laughed, though there was no real humor in it. “I think this particular situation is very much one that calls for worrying.”

Hunk frowned. “Worrying, no. Strategizing, yes.”

“You got any strategies to get us out of here, then?” Lance retorted. Hunk nodded. 

“Comm links on, location systems on, sitting and waiting until we hear something from one or the other.” When Lance gaped at him, unimpressed, Hunk shrugged. “That's really all we can do.”

“Fantastic.” Lance said flatly. He lay back against the incline of the blue lion’s features, looking out across the sea around them. It was strange and yet familiar, calming as it lapped at the edges of the lions like earthly ocean waves. Lance listened, willing himself not to let nostalgia become homesickness, in the midst of every other emotion he was feeling.

“You know - this place reminds me a lot of the ocean, back home.” He said, still watching the water. A few yards away, Hunk hummed in agreement.

“Just without the beach.” 

“Yeah.” Lance snorted. He went silent after that, just taking in the sights and sounds of the planet onto which they'd been tossed, a reminder of home in the strangest of places. “Still. It's pretty. Blue.”

“My favorite color.” Hunk said, and his voice was warmer - and noticeably closer. Lance turned to see him sitting on the edge of the yellow lion’s snout, close enough to lean across to where it rested against the face of the blue lion. Lance scooted closer, a grin beginning to tug at the corners of his lips. 

“I'm particularly fond of yellow,” he smiled, letting Hunk reach out to pull him forward once they were close enough, until his legs were dangling over the side of his lion’s nose, kicking playfully between Hunk’s. “Reminds me of the sun.”

The light from a foreign star warming the sky behind him, Hunk looked like a work of art, smiling back at him. He took Lance’s hands in his, squeezing them, a wordless reassurance, and let his head fall forward until their foreheads gently touched. Hunk was warm, and even with both of them sweating and the strange smell of whatever might be in the water around them hitting his nose, Lance couldn't help smiling. His co-pilot was still there, as he'd always been. Everything else in his life had changed, but thankfully, his luck had never run out when it came to Hunk. 

He nosed against Hunk’s cheek, grinning when Hunk huffed a laugh, and then pressed their lips together. Whatever happened afterward was none of his concern. The two of them would figure it out; they'd get back to the others, together.

Lance breathed a sigh. “Not that being stuck here was on my top ten list of things to do today, but… I guess it's not as bad as it could be.”  

“Same. If I have to be here…” Hunk said, looking around like he hoped the planet might tell them its name or where in the universe they were. It didn't, but the soft splashing of the water around them was enough, for the moment. He look back at Lance, satisfied. “I'm glad you're here.”

“Glad  _ we’re _ here.” Lance said with a grin, and leaned forward for another kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you think!
> 
> Look for me elsewhere on [twitter](twitter.com/_quartetship_) or [tumblr](quartetship.tumblr.com)!


End file.
